2020 The year of being intentional!

Let's put a nice bow on 2019 and then quickly get on to the amazing 2020... wait for it... the Year of... BEING INTENTIONAL!!! (to quote my lovely wife) She has inspired a movement in our household... not just with her lovely coffee making skills...and we are on board to be doers this year and embrace all the adventure that God puts in our hearts... instead of the somewhat usual "hmm, that would be nice to do someday." TODAY IS THE DAY! 

December was a crazy month! Yeah, for you too I'm sure :). MK does a lot in December, starting with Cowan Christmas. We enjoyed another year visiting with the great cloud of witnesses that inspire us and pray for us from the Cowan apartments here on the center. Their stories inspire hope and faithfulness and their prayers protect us and keep us strong!

My kids are pretty much famous after all the Christmas shows they have been in recently! Asher and Bella know how to perform! Bella was so sad when it was over. She really loved being up there on stage!

After she knocked it out of the park performing, she got to come home and complete her first Science Fair project! How do colors make you feel? Does the season impact what you think of when you see a particular color?

It's an ugly sweater party!!!! What a great community we have around here! It's so fun to have my own kids get to know my awesome friends! 

 It was another great year for the MK talent show! We raised over $800 for the MK ministry and got to see some amazing talent! Our adult MKs stole the show this year and it was such an awesome night seeing old friends and new and getting the whole MK family together. We had the Kids on the Go (4-6th grade) perform this year which was a nice addition to the program! We are getting better and better at working as a team with all the wonderful people God has called to love these MKs.

Here is almost the whole team at an appreciation breakfast!

We enjoyed another epic MK College Retreat, and I was so touched yet again with how God showed up in our 14:26 service. It's just great getting time off with these amazing kids. During the service God spoke directly to one of our beloved MKs who hadn't heard his voice in far too long. Just hearing His voice has created such an incredible hunger in them to hear more. God spoke and brought deep healing and restored a relationship that had been very painful! Our God is so incredible! I love these amazing people; it's a privilege walking with them and seeing them grow! 

Here you can see Diane making me ready for our annual journey through middle earth with the MKs! Unfortunately I didn't get an after picture, but it was pretty cool, she wrapped my hair and beard with gold wire and I looked very dwarf-in-Middle Earth-like. It was so fun... between the two long days (Hobbit trilogy followed by LOTR trilogy the next Saturday) we had about 70 people over! Diane fed them like a champ and we enjoyed lots of community! We watched in the living room, garage and then had a gaming room and even an outdoor football game happening. It was 18 hours of awesome between the two days! It was fun to have about 16 college MKs back for the tradition as well! 

Here you can see two of my favorite people in their comfy Christmas presents. A very nice way to stay comfy in the mild almost warm winter we are enjoying this year.

Christmas was fun with all of Diane's family and a little sad since my sister was sick for the whole Christmas week and one of Diane's sisters couldn't make it. It was nice to celebrate with my parents and to make some more good memories with the kids, sleeping under the tree and opening a huge smorgasbord of presents. We also enjoyed watching lots of fun Christmas movies and Christmas themed shows and Diane was able to take some much needed time off work, before entering the new year and all the crazy! I struggled through two weeks of killer sinus headaches, but thankfully haven't had one for about that same amount of time.

Let's not forget the amazing Broomball event! Such a great staple this time of year! 

We finally bought a very cool outdoor fire pit! It was special to get to enjoy it with these lovely ladies one afternoon! Fire just makes everything feel so cozy and special. The girl on the right is sadly leaving the MK group soon. I'm grateful that I get to spend some time with her before that happens. The other lovely lady has graduated and I enjoy seeing her about once a week..at least before the craziness of college picks up again! I decided to marry the lady in the back a long time ago and that was one of the best decisions I have ever made!

The new year has started and per usual I have gotten a dramatic haircut to commemorate new beginnings... no, I just got tired of the mop on my head. I have kept some of the beard longer and it's fun having Diane play around with it! What a fun wife :). 

We have kicked the new year off with a charge to take our spiritual training more seriously. I was inspired to create catered training groups for the kids to join. This last Monday we split the group into 5 categories (Bible Study, Bible Reading, Memorization, Worship, Prayer/Journaling) and they are all now training in the way that they are most interested. I find that consistency in my training both physical and spiritual has been vastly aided by finding a way to train that I enjoy (finding this out through trial and error) and having people to train with! My hope is to give these kids the same gift, that they would develop into mighty warriors as they learn how to train consistently with one another and develop something that will far outlive their time in MK. 

Thanks for being on this journey with me. Your prayers and your love inspire and motivate me on the journey and your support keeps my family able to dedicate so much of its energy into loving the amazing families that I get so serve. I feel so honored to have you on my team! I'm feeling rather pumped as I think about it! Insert Caleb bark here :). 

Please Pray...

For Diane and complete healing from Panic Attacks! Also grace in this very busy season at work! 

For Wisdom for me as I lead this group and consider all the amazing trips God has given me this year! 

and to quote a pretty famous guy... 

I love you so much!

Blessings,

Caleb

If you want to support what I do a little or a lot, on a one time basis or with recurring gifts, click on the tab "Supporting the Work" at the top of the page and sign up for Chase Quickpay. You can then send your donation to HCLC - Caleb Robbins Ministry using my e-mail address caleb_robbins@sil.org. If you would like further instructions on setting that up, please click on the link at the top right of the page called How to give. Or feel free to contact me directly! 214 558 8431.

Another way to donate to the ministry is via check. If you write a check to "Holy Cross Lutheran Church" and put "Caleb Robbins Ministry" in the memo line, it will get deposited into my ministry account.

The address is:

Holy Cross Lutheran Church 

4400 W Arkansas Ln

Arlington, TX 76016

Diane is my beautiful wife and the mother of my precious children Creed 12, Asher 10, Liam 7, Echo already in heaven, Bella 5, and Serenity 3 years old.